Cotton, Slavery and the South

Chapter 11

The Cotton Economy

• Crop Shifts– Tobacco

– Rice

• Sugar

• Long-Staple (Sea Island) Cotton

• Short-Staple Cotton

“King Cotton” Emerges

• advent of the cotton gin made Short-Staple cotton much easier to produce

• Social Demand

• Spread

– by 1820

– by 1850

– by 1860

– at the start of the Civil War Cotton constituted nearly two thirds of the total export trade of the USA and was bringing in $200 million a year

• Social impact– whites

– Blacks

Southern Trade and Industry

• Other business areas

• Commercial sector

• Transportation

Southern Society and Culture

• Philisophical Grandations

• Actual Gradations

Social Stratification among whites– most farmers were dependent on the system

*Fake Smile*

The “Peculiar Institution”

• Slave Codes– forbade slaves

Slave Codes Cont’d– If a master killed a slave, the act was generally

not considered a crime

Size Mattered

• Large vs. Small Plantations

• Slave Life– Workday

• (in house) slaves lived/worked closely to master

• slave women

• Slave Life Cont’d– “Enough”

– Health

• Slave Life Cont’d– Slavery in the Cities– rare

• Slave Life Cont’d– Free African Americans

• 250,000 free African Americans in slaveholding states at the start of the Civil War

– Slave Trade• professional business of slave traders

• Slave Life Cont’d– Slave Trade Cont’d

– Acceptance and Rebellion• at two extremes, slavery could produce two very different

reactions

The Culture of Slavery

• Language and Music– language sometimes incorporated African

speech patterns into English

Jennifer Ong

• Religion– Slaves became Christian (Baptist or Methodist)

due to missionary efforts

• Family Structure– marriage not legal

Jennifer Ong